About us

Iulia Jaso and Delia Wookey (born Zanoschi) are Romanian twin sisters, business women and high altitude mountaineers. They started mountaineering expeditions in 2017 without any prior knowledge of mountaineering, camping, rock climbing or adventure sports.

They are the Youngest People in the world to complete the Seven Summits and Volcanic Seven Summits at 33 years.

The business women

Born and raised in Iasi, Romania, Iulia and Delia were active children but grew up in a protective family that did not encourage dangerous sports. They excelled in their studies, graduating with a BSc in Business Administration from ASE and Sorbonne and a Masters in Finance from HEC Paris.

Iulia and Delia built a successful career in finance in Brussels, London and the United States after their MBAs at Harvard and Wharton. “I spent one third of my life trying to ignore the mountains calling” reflects Delia. 

The turning point

In 2017, after a joint trip in Africa which included summiting Kilimanjaro, Delia and Iulia fell in love with the beauty and equality they experienced on the mountains. “I felt happy and at peace on the mountain” says Iulia. It is there that they first heard about the 7 and 7 challenge and they dreamt to be able to summit together the 7 highest peaks and 7 highest volcanic peaks in every continent. 

They had to overcome a lot of obstacles and break from traditional norms to become professional mountaineers. When they shared their dream, their family was not supportive of them climbing. Actually almost no one thought they could do it, either family, friends, guides and mountaineers. “We were not strong, had never climbed a mountain, were not runners or professional athletes that have endurance. Actually quite the opposite. I felt like the odds were against us.” says Delia 

The journey

In expeditions, they asked their guides to teach them how to climb, they learnt from everyone around them. “It was a long road, we had to learn how to walk on a mountain, how to breathe, we had to listen to our body but also push beyond what we thought our limits were. In the mountains I found a strength in me that I didn’t know I had” says Delia. With the exception of Denali, they summitted on first try all the mountains they climbed despite very rough conditions and sometimes being the only or amongst the few who summitted. For example, on Everest they faced two cyclones and an avalanche that swiped up an entire camp. Their perseverance led them to accomplish their dream and inspire others on the way.

Over a 5 year journey they became the youngest in the world and first Romanians to finish both the Seven Summits and Seven Volcanic Summits, first twins to finish the Seven Volcanic Summits and the 26th worldwide. They are also the youngest Romanian women to summit Everest.  

Present

Delia and Iulia now live in Seattle, USA. They continue to be successful business women: Iulia Jaso works as Principal of Product at Google and Delia is Head of Finance at a tech startup. They started their families and enjoy spending time with their husbands and children. And they are planning to continue to climb once their children grow up a little.